Since you will have the engine out, might as well weld everything up and do it all in the first go round. Then you wont have that "shoulda done it back when" feeling. Lets face it, how many more projects is your wife and beat down old body gonna let you get this involved in??? Plus, this is supposedly "the car" that you were actually wanting to do when doing the others before it.

You are right, I was having one of my "Mike's a bad influence moments" when considering cleaning up the engine bay. Right when I was heavily considering it my tranny controller showed up on my door. Wonder where I got the idea to go with another auto in the truck, and one with an electronic overdrive? I think I will just get that project done first before considering another one of your great ideas you post about.

SN Certified TechnicianMod Dude

Another great day. (Always seems like it's a great day when I'm either buying stuff, or getting stuff I bought. Today I did both)

I started out today determined to put several issues to bed. The priorities were to acquire a 4R70w,..and determine whether I was gonna build the 250 ( which will need to be sleeved), or build the 200 I currently have and adapt the bellhousing to allow me to run the newly purchased trans.

I go to the yard and after getting permission from the owner to find my transmission. I wade into what was about 15-20 4R70w's trying to find one w/ a SBF bellhousing. I find 99.9 of those all have modular bells, and only one lonely little egg has what I need,....( which was OK, because I only needed one)
BUT,..because I gotta be a hard head,.I ask JY dude what was the difference between the SBF bell and the Modular, and he tells me one has a 2 bolt starter, and one has a 3 bolt starter. "That's all?" I ask..."Yup" says JY dude.

So I buy the cleanest looking one he has,....(w/ a 3 bolt starter) and take that heavy sum**** back to the house.
Before I unload it,...I get the 250 block plate, and put it up against the new trans to compare. ( why I didn't take it with me in the first place, is beyond me.)

Does it fit?...Why hell no,...it ain't even close. I shut the tail gate, and take the trans back to the yard, where I exchange it for the lonely pup. (only this time I got the plate with me to confirm the fit)

I had no idea what I was buying,..it looked like every other trans that sat next to it, so I just assumed it was correct. Once I get it home, and pressure washed, there is a plate that has what looks like a ford part number........
I google it.

01-03 4r70W out of A/T equipped 3.8L Mustang. Perfecto!

Back on my good day roll,...I later find out that the Megasquirt I'm building will also run this transmission via an add-on processor, aptly named Mega-Shift. The Bauman controller I was planning on buying costs 580.00....the Mega Shift kit ....261.00!! Yeah baby!

I call a new custom piston builder ( Racetec,..guy used to work for J.E.) He quotes me 690.00 for pistons and pins...about 125.00 less than Ross.

I get home and the Mega Squirt stuff I've been waiting on to complete my CPU build is there, UPS pulls up, and my newly shortened, resplined, and re-machined for C-clip axles arrive.

SN Certified TechnicianMod Dude

Since you will have the engine out, might as well weld everything up and do it all in the first go round. Then you wont have that "shoulda done it back when" feeling. Lets face it, how many more projects is your wife and beat down old body gonna let you get this involved in??? Plus, this is supposedly "the car" that you were actually wanting to do when doing the others before it.

You are right, I was having one of my "Mike's a bad influence moments" when considering cleaning up the engine bay. Right when I was heavily considering it my tranny controller showed up on my door. Wonder where I got the idea to go with another auto in the truck, and one with an electronic overdrive? I think I will just get that project done first before considering another one of your great ideas you post about.

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Good plan Jeeves....But I'm sure before long you'll be blaming me for putting the notion of painting your car Dark Emerald Green....

I'm just here to tell you it wasn't my Idea,..you can blame @madspeed for that one.

With regard to your advice on doing the engine compartment right the first time.....You're right,....It'll just be something that bugs me because I coulda did it "when", so consider your advice taken as well.

As for the car being the last,...and the "ONE" it is one in the same. For all of the reasons you stated,....so it will get the benefit of the best I can do.
I do have to start making forward progress though,..so I will start tomorrow by doing an engine mock up ( now that I have a transmission) and make my trans mount, throw the X flow head on and start mocking it up for the intake and exhaust.

SN Certified TechnicianMod Dude

@madmike1157 - Why do I get so excited when YOU have a good day? lol I guess I'm just excited to see what new ideas you'll come up with for the car.

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I don't know.

I could be one of the following:

You like watching me spend money.
You like watching me get dirty.
You like watching me take stuff off of an ugly car.

It's gotta be one of the three, (or a combination), as that is all I've done so far. I haven't made any forward progress on any actual part of the build, EXCEPT:
#1. Spend money.
#2. Get dirty.
#3. Remove stuff

I'm gonna go down there in a couple of hours, and tear more stuff off of it, and at least put the 250 block, Xflow head, and 4R70 inside the engine bay. The garage is so full of "staged" stuff now, I can barely move.
I'm thinking I'm gonna make a wooden rollie cart like Scott's (@RacEoHolic330 ) so I can push that pig out every now and then so I can rearrange the stuff.

SN Certified TechnicianMod Dude

Well here we go folks,...I actually started making............................... progress.

As I stated this morning, the plan was to strip the engine compartment, and trial fit the 250. While that sounds like a few hours,...it actually ended up being all day.

As usual for me, I took the long road to get to short cut town,...starting with one of the struts.

Of all the damn tools I have,... the one thing I do not have is a 20mm anything. I think the nut on top of the strut is 20mm,..and since I didn't have it, I looked for the equivalent SAE size (7/8"). The deep well, 6 pt. 7/8 Craftsman socket I have gave it up on some other project, and was hiding a crack that managed to reveal itself as soon as I pulled the impact trigger. Effectively rounding the nut, and jamming itself on at the same time. After I got it off, could I find a stinkin' 1/2" drive 7/8 anything to replace my broke ass socket?...... Nope.
Ended up trying to loosen it w/ a wrench.
Now you know as well as I that trying to turn that nut w/ a wrench will only manage to turn the strut shaft,...and sure enough,..it did. Since I was replacing that strut, and I didn't care about damaging it,..I looked for a large vise grip to lock that dude in place.
Could I find a large pair of vise grips?.....Nope.
I got out a pipe wrench.
That hardened, shiny smooth strut piston just laughed at my pipe wrench. It spun, and spun.
Am I getting p issed off now? Yep.
So, I decided to end my frustration and cut that shaft completely in two w/ a cut off blade on my grinder,...which I do.

**Are you sharp enough to figure that by now, I am taking the long road to short cut town...since I am replacing all of the front end stuff, INCLUDING the struts, and the strut mounts?

Not me. I didn't figure that out until AFTER I cut the old strut out w/ a cut off wheel,...and immediately after the third nut that held said strut mount was removed where in the strut mount fell through to the floor,..w/ the other half of the cut off strut piston still attached.
DUURRRR!!

I moved on past that.
While removing the 200/C-3, the worthless C-3 auto trans managed to up chuck about a qt of trans fluid despite the fact that I dropped the pan, and drained it.....I had my own little Exxon Valdeez incident going on under my car w/o my knowledge.
Did I have something to stop the Tsunami of red from covering all of the tools, bolts, nuts, and dirt I had laying on the floor?....Nope.
I used the Saturday newspaper to sop up the red fungue.
I moved on past that.
I drug the C-3, and the old 200 out into the driveway, and bolted my 250 bare block to my 4R70w and swung thatpair over into my now bare engine compartment.
Does it go right in, and settle into the factory mount pads that the 200 used to occupy?....Nope.
I have to modify the factory mounts to allow the wider 250 to fit.
Ordinarily, I'd at least use the trans mount to "locate" the combination, so I could concentrate on the getting the monts right.
Do I have a trans mount that will allow me to "locate" the combination?....Nope.
This transmission hangs 2 full inches past the factory trans mount. Besides,.... in all the time, and with all the cars I've dealt with, I've never seen a trans mount so badly mangled as the one under this car. It appears the little old lady that owned it before, must've ran over a boulder,..as the trans mount was badly bent, and distorted, literally torn.

I spent the next hour beating, prying, and bending the trans mount back to a state where the crossmember ( which was also bent to hell) could fit again. After all of that, the trans mount was so far to the rear of the factory location,...I just put a jack stand to hold it there, until after I figured out the motor mounts.

I had to cut the motor mounts, to allow the engine to drop,..but by the time I tackled that,..I could only manage one before the wife started "reminding" me that it was 5:00. So I did one.

I don't care what anybody thinks,.....This thing will be so damn cool.
Sorry for the blurry pic,..that is supposed to show the difference between how low I had to redo the mount.
compare to this:

Nice progress. You know most auto part stores sell cheap sockets individually, right? Buy the one you need for $2, then if you break it, oh well. After going through that type of situation a couple fifty times, I realized the two minute drive (for me) and $2 was worth it. Glad to see you doing something while I sit here and wait for my trans shop and Baumann to open on Monday. This is while outside temps are steadily dropping each day, so its starting to look like I wont be doing my swap until spring. Cant have my winter vehicle down waiting on me to resolve any of the 100 small issues that may pop up.